Lokhi Naru: Blade and Spell
by chiefsci
Summary: Alanis Reyne, a sorceress and a thief, accidentally meets Lokhi Naru, the first Chosen of the new Mystra. The two set out to investigate a mysterious warlord, seeking to discover who is pulling his strings and who is supplying him with his magic.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The raven-haired Alanis Reyne slipped elegantly through the crowds of nobles lining the streets. She glided past the bustling merchants, the streetlamps both lighting her way through the otherwise dimly-lit city and accenting the glittering sapphires and rubies set into the fabric of her dress and the jeweled dagger tucked away on her right hip. She wore a powerful perfume, magically enhanced to attract any possible suitors for the duration of the charm. The hard stone of the city streets would have made her footfalls echo loudly against the brick buildings on either side of the main plaza of Neverwinter, but the uproar from the crowd drowned them out.

As Alanis made her way through the throng of nobles, she spotted her target: a particularly pompous young aristocrat whom she knew had an insatiable appetite for wine and women. Her plan was quickly put into motion as she recalled the night's preparation. Her jeweled dress, gem-encrusted dagger, and the charm-spelled perfume were all a part of her scheme.

The young noble, Terros Salvak, the son of a wealthy shipping magnate whose dealings were underhanded, as often as not, stood in a group of his fellow lords and ladies. They spoke loudly about the trouble in nearby Luskan, Neverwinter's neighboring city, directly to the north. It sounded as though not only were the Arcane Brotherhood upholding their reputation for being a nuisance, but also a fleet of pirates had begun attacking the more northerly Waterdeep's trade ships and haunting the once safe trade routes. Their intervals of laughter and uppity language made it evident to all within the sounds of their voice that they were no more concerned for matters of the arcane or of pirates than they were of their homes being ransacked by gnoll or orc raiding parties.

Approaching him, she noticed not only the finely adorned clothing he wore, exquisite silks from the East, but the bulky rings on his fingers, whose jewels shone as brightly in the lamps as those embedded in her skirts.

She drew near to him, wrapping both her arms around one of his. Alanis noticed the thickness of his arm and the strength of his powerful muscles as they flexed under her grip. She looked up into his eyes longingly.

"M'lord, on such a fine evening as this, I would greatly enjoy the company of a man of your nobility." Her perfectly practiced honest expression played perfectly into his pride, and his face reflected the fact that his arrogance had been bolstered by this woman's proposition.

He smiled pretentiously and agreed loudly, broadcasting his acceptance of her offer so that all those around would turn to watch him. "Of course, my dear. There is a small pub nearby where we could obtain a private room, no doubt. Come with me."

Terros turned with Alanis still on his arm, smiling up at him innocently. As they strolled off in the direction of the pub, Alanis's mind was racing. Reaching the door, Terros opened it for her and made a show of guiding her inside.

He spoke to the bartender, placing a few coins on the counter, and led Alanis up a narrow flight of stairs to the second floor of the pub. This time, with no audience, Terros opened the door and stepped inside, leaving Alanis to make her way into the room and close the door behind them.

Terros grinned arrogantly, sitting on the end of the bed as his mind contemplated what pleasures he would soon experience, but as Alanis closed the door, her fingers beginning to weave a spell, the smirk disappeared from his face, replaced with a feeling very unfamiliar to Terros: fear.

Alanis's fingers moved deftly and the magic held deep within her was called up and focused. The spell was finished as quickly as it had begun, and the fear that Terros felt was quickly replaced by an overwhelming urge to close his eyes and drift off to sleep. Despite his fiercest effort, Terros slipped into unconsciousness and fell back onto the bed.

Alanis was on him in an instant, slipping the rings off his fingers and placing them in a pouch she had hidden in the folds of her dress. She then drew the dagger, slicing his coin purse free of his belt. Her fingers skillfully searched for any other valuables on him, rifling through every pocket and pouch on him. In one of his soft leather boots, she found an extra coin purse, no doubt in case the first was emptied in overindulgence or stolen by brigands. Alanis slipped both coin purses into her pouch and closed its latch.

Leaving the room and locking the door behind her, Alanis made her way quickly down the stairs and through the pub's first floor, not bothering to speak to the bartender or any of the patrons on her way out.

Back on the city streets after only a few minutes of thieving, Alanis slipped into the shadows and alleys, this time attempting to get away from the crowds instead of into their midst. Letting her spell-guise fall, her dress melted away to reveal her leather suit and boots, all the blackest she could buy. Her hair, now red and lengthy instead of black, was pinned close to her head to avoid it getting in the way in a critical moment.

She had no sooner stepped out of an alley, mere feet from crossing the road to the run-down building she used for a cache when a member of the City Guard bellowed at her to "halt".

Alanis's head whipped to the side to see the guard approaching quickly and the scenario played out in her mind. Something about her demeanor leaving the pub made her seem suspicious. Someone must have gone up to the room to make sure everything was alright with the couple that had just before seemed eager to slip away and be alone. The person that checked must have knocked on the door, and finding it locked with no answer after only a few minutes, must have suspected foul play. Still, she thought, her spell-guise should have worked, and the guards should have been looking for a raven-haired woman in a blue, flowing gown, shouldn't they?

The guard's armor was clanging loudly as he approached. Alanis turned on her heel and sprinted away quickly, the guard following in pursuit, keeping up the pace despite his heavy armor.

As Alanis raced through the city, several guards joined the chase, and more than a few times Alanis thought she was cornered, only to find some narrow escape and avoid the guards' grasp by only a hair's breadth.

Quickly realizing that she was no longer welcome inside the city, Alanis knew her only hope was outside of Neverwinter's walls. With the city gates closed after nightfall, she understood that they were not an option, and that an exit from the city would not be as easy as she had hoped.

With her heart pounding and the guards only a few yards back, Alanis reached the wall surrounding Neverwinter. The wall was only about fifteen feet tall, but that was still much higher than she could jump. Gathering her wits, she quickly saw the wooden merchant's booths as the stairs she needed to leave Neverwinter.

After a powerful jump, she had half of her body on the roof of the booth, and after swinging her leg over and a bit of maneuvering, she was standing on the top of the booth, looking up at only a few more feet of wall. She launched herself up and pulled herself over the wall just as the guards were drawing their crossbows and firing a volley of bolts toward the place where she had just been standing.

Dropping fifteen feet to the rocky ground below, Alanis twisted her ankle. She barely had time to wince until she heard the sound of the city gates opening. The guard was pursuing her outside the city!

She limped as she ran, but she was still able to beat a hasty retreat eastward into the few miles of forested wilderness that lay before her. As the terrain changed from the rocky sand around the city to the grass and ferns that line the forest floor, her ankle began to swell and throb. Her boot felt tighter with each step.

Alanis could hear a rumbling growing closer, and she knew then that the guards were pursuing her on horseback. She pushed ahead despite the pain and limped deeper into the forest. The hoof beats were growing louder as she was finally giving in to her screaming ankle. Perhaps if she turned herself in and returned the property she had stolen, Lord Nasher would be sympathetic and grant her a light sentence. Even spending time in a dungeon seemed better than a night in the forest with an injured leg.

She was about to turn and face the guards that she knew had already spotted her when she limped one final step forward. The ground seemed to bend under her weight, and to her utter surprise gave way, causing her to fall through into a seemingly endless, dark abyss.

She fell for what seemed like days, though she knew it had to have only been seconds. Without time to cast a proper spell, she would no doubt be killed when she hit the floor of the gigantic cavern that she was then tumbling through.

Alanis could hear her fall speeding up, quicker and quicker, her senses telling her that the ground was also racing up to meet her. _This is how I'm going to die_, she thought. Alanis hurtled like a cannonball toward the floor of the cavern, feeling with all of her heart that the ground was only feet away and then suddenly…everything stopped.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Alanis was bewildered; she was hovering horizontally above a hard stone floor. Judging from the time it took to reach the bottom, she guessed her fall at between one- and two hundred feet. She had expected to be killed when she collided with the bottom of the cavern. Instead she was stopped only inches away from it, her red hair hanging down, partly resting on the floor.

As she calmed down enough to gather her wits and take in her surroundings, she felt her body begin to shift into a standing position. She finally found her feet standing on solid ground again. Her heart still pounded in her chest as she gazed around the cavern.

The cave was large enough to hold nearly half of Neverwinter. The walls were mostly bare and craggy, but toward the top grew mosses and lichens. The cavern was lit only by moonlight shining down through the hole she had created in the ground above.

"Thought I might have some company tonight," a male voice said grimly.

Alanis spun toward the sound of the voice, coming from what appeared to be a large throne less than twenty feet away.

"No need to be frightened, I'll even raise the light if it will make you feel better."

The whole room suddenly emanated light as several dozen balls of spellfire shimmered to life on the walls of the cave. The walls were lined with bookshelves up to a height of about twenty-five feet. She supposed that there must be a copy of nearly every book written among these old tomes. Alanis looked up to gaze at the blue globes of light only to see the hole in the cavern's roof seal itself with fresh ground. She looked down to see who this mysterious speaker was.

Her eyes met the hauntingly blue eyes of a man sitting in the throne. His lightly tanned skin and closely cut jet-black hair served only to enhance his already handsome features. He wore a loose dark blue floor-length jacket with red buttons, which hung open to reveal his blue tunic and pants. Even his boots were blue, she saw. He held one of the books in his hand, its pages yellowed from age.

The man smiled warmly, glad to have someone to speak with other than himself.

"I am Lokhi Naru, wizard of Mystra. And you are?"

Alanis looked at the man. Upon hearing the word "wizard", she knew he must have been the one that kept her from striking the hard cavern floor and becoming little more than a memory.

"I am Alanis Reyne. I am…a treasure hunter from Luskan."

Lokhi raised an eyebrow. She was obviously a thief, as he could tell not only from the profession of "treasure hunter", but as a city, Luskan wasn't known for producing strong, upstanding citizens.

"A 'treasure hunter', indeed." He tilted his head to the side and glanced down at her pouch. "I can tell that tonight has been especially fruitful as far as treasure goes. The jewelry you have there is very stylish, even if the charms on them are a bit stale and unimaginative."

Alanis's hand went to the pouch on her hip. She instinctively took a step back from the man who still sat in the old throne, carved from the rock of the cavern. Her mind raced as she considered what sort of person sat before her.

"What sort of wizard can identify such charms without casting any spells himself?"

Lokhi simply smiled and rose from his seat. He stood and let go of the book he was holding, which drifted up to its place on one of the hundreds of shelves.

"And what sort of thief doesn't keep her hair tied back and out of the way?" he asked coyly. "And such fiery hair, at that."

Alanis raised an eyebrow at the question. This was a strange man indeed, and had he been sitting by himself in complete blackness just a moment ago, reading a book?

Lokhi began walking across the room, past Alanis, to a small alcove where the shelves ended. Alanis followed him through a now brightly lit tunnel into a smaller room, also carved out of the cavern's stone.

Alanis gazed around the smaller, box-shaped room, and noticed the paintings hanging from the wall. One featured a younger looking Lokhi standing beside a blue-haired, white-skinned elf maiden. Between them, the elf, wearing a sheer blue dress, was conjuring a small blue fireball. _What is it with these people and blue?_ Alanis wondered. It seemed to be an ongoing theme. In this particular painting, though, Lokhi was wearing a black suit which seemed to double as light armor, based on the protective pieces on the forearms and shoulders. The blackness of the dark suit was accented by dark purple undershirt and trim along the protective body armor. She paused a moment and saw that Lokhi's eyes were green in the painting, not blue.

The next painting they passed appeared to be a family, all dressed in similar black and purple apparel. She saw Lokhi standing to the left of the center, wearing his black and purple suit. The suit seemed to be his signature garb, and she wondered if he still had it somewhere.

Lokhi walked into the room as he had several times before. With a gesture, a small cooking fire flared to life and the contents of the black, cast-iron pot sitting above it began bubbling. Made instantly hot by magic, the stew that Lokhi had been thickening and tending to for several days sent an aroma into the air that Alanis found irresistible.

"Of course, you'll be wanting some of this," Lokhi said. "It is a stew I made from some roast pork, carrots, and the potatoes I have growing up in the forest." Lokhi took a ladle from the small table nearby and dipped Alanis and himself each a bowl of the stew. With another gesture, he activated the magic contained in each bowl. A spoon materialized in the bowls and the stew kept its temperature, not cooling despite the chilly cavern air.

Alanis ate a spoonful of the stew and smiled as it warmed her entire body. Perhaps there had been more than pork, carrots and potatoes in the stew after all…Was everything about Lokhi steeped in magic somehow? She felt her fatigue from the run disappear, as well as the soreness in her ankle.

Lokhi himself quickly spooned down the bowl of stew, which he knew contained traces of a Regenerate potion. It warmed him as well, although his injuries were already healed long before. With a smile, he turned to Alanis.

He could tell she was more introspective, thinking rather than speaking the things she learned and inferred about him. Lokhi could tell that Alanis would be intelligent enough to carry out the mission he had for her, he only hoped that she would trust him after only knowing him for these few minutes.

"Enjoy the stew?" Lokhi asked.

Alanis nodded, smiling while spooning down the last of her stew. She watched as Lokhi's face changed to a more grave expression.

" I knew you'd come because Mystra told me in a dream. It is not so strange, she speaks to me quite often through dreams…probably has to do with having my full attention." Lokhi sighed. "At any rate, she told me that tonight, someone would drop in and it would be the person I need to fulfill the task I have before me.

"A few hundred miles south of here, in the province of Amn, there is a military campaign broiling. The campaign is led by a powerful warlord with an enchanted suit of armor. Needless to say, the political atmosphere in Amn is unstable now, although it has never been as 'friendly' as that of Waterdeep or Neverwinter. Amn has an oligarchic government, ruled by a political entity called the Council of Six. They have strong ties to the Shadow Thieves, and yes, I mean the guild that was kicked out of Waterdeep several years back. They settled in Amn and now they work alongside the Council of Six. They also made an alliance with a gang of ogre mages, despite the Amnian people's hatred for arcane magic.

"Somehow, this warlord has united the greed-filled armies of Amn with the ogre mages' bands of goblins, kobolds, and hill giants. I need someone to find the secret to his persuasiveness, and I have a strong feeling it has something to do with that enchanted armor. According to the Harper agents I've spoken with, he never removes it, and with the helmet in place, they can sense incredible magic flowing, yet none of their own spells will work.

Lokhi glanced at the picture of the family on the wall for a moment; then lowered his gaze. "I need your help. I need you to investigate the warlord, because I can't do it myself. Arcane spellcasters are reviled in Amn, and the clerics of Cyric and Bane down there will cease their holy war just long enough to eradicate a wizard of Mystra if I were discovered."

His gaze met Alanis's and she thought for a moment.

"So what if this warlord tears a path through Amn? If they hate wizards down there, why should you care what happens to them?"

Lokhi couldn't help but smile.

"You have a good point, nearly any Amnite would kill me, given half a chance. But Mystra, the goddess of magic, has bid me spread magic. In this case, the Amnites are not fighting amongst themselves, that has already been done, and this new warlord has come to power. The problem is that he has already declared to the people that Amn should spread to conquer the provinces to the north. After they conquer the Western Heartlands, they'll begin marching up the Sword Coast. It will only be a matter of time before we would have this threat knocking on our door."

Alanis considered the situation. She was a thief, not a hero, and she certainly didn't need to risk her life so that a few mages could practice their art, nevermind that she was also a sorceress on the side. She could keep the shadows as good as anyone if the need be. Still….

"How much does it pay?"

Lokhi frowned. "Any information you can get me will be well rewarded…and you can steal anything you like while you're in Amn. Merchants everywhere, greedy people, lots of jewelry."

Rolling it around in her mind, Alanis liked the idea, although she knew that Lokhi was clearly aware of her profession.

"I'll do it. When do I leave?"

"In the morning, as for now, you had better rest up." Lokhi pointed toward the bed he kept in the corner of the smaller room.

Alanis saw the bed, then turned back to Lokhi and raised an eyebrow.

"Relax, it's yours for the night. I don't sleep." Lokhi turned and walked back into the cavern, pausing only to glance at the picture of he and the blue haired elf maiden. He walked back to the throne in the center of the large cavern and took a seat.

Holding out his hand, the book that he had been reading floated back into his hand and flipped itself open to the page he had been on earlier. With another gesture, he dispelled the blue flames that had been lighting the cavern, and sent the cave back into complete darkness.

In the pitch-blackness, he looked down and continued reading.

From the small room, Alanis saw the cavern go dark. She wasn't naturally trusting, but this wizard seemed at the best to be kind and shy, and at worst a little aloof. Looking at the bed, she supposed that it hadn't been used in months. Perhaps he was serious when he said he didn't sleep…

For now, Alanis realized that she was tired, despite the effects of that stew, or perhaps the warm stew was what made her drowsy in the first place. Either way, she climbed into the bed. She didn't bother removing her black leather suit; she decided she would need that to fight off the cold of the cave, not to mention the fact that she had just met this strange man and was now laying in his bed, several hundred feet underground. She didn't entirely trust him, although he had given her no reason to doubt his integrity.

She drifted off to sleep, dreaming about all of the treasure of Amn.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Alanis awoke to the sound of something sizzling. She slid out of bed and yelped when her feet touched the cold stone floor. The lights had been restored. Looking around, Alanis could see the interior of this smaller room with much more detail than she did the night before. She saw stacks of books, some of which looked very old. A small desk sat across the room and as Alanis made her way toward it, she peered over to see a large journal. The writing was in a language she did not understand, but judging by the readiness of his feather quill pen, Lokhi obviously wrote in it very often.

Alanis made her way through the wide hall, noticing again the family portrait that hung on the wall. She leaned in close and was sure that Lokhi had green eyes in the painting, as well as in the painting of he and the elf maiden. But she could have sworn that his eyes were a haunting blue color…Something was definitely strange about this man, and she would have to satisfy her curiosity. Of course, she thought, curiosity can be more deadly than ignorance.

Lokhi stood in the large room, lit by the sun. Glancing up, he smiled as he looked through the roof of the cavern, magically made transparent to anyone looking up from below. Those on the surface wouldn't notice any difference at all. He often did this during the day to flood the room with sunlight, as well as to get a glimpse of the forest overhead. Lokhi closed his eyes for a moment and let the sun warm his face. How he had gone so long without it, he'd never know. Sunlight: one of life's simple pleasures that cannot be substituted.

He looked down to resume cooking breakfast: eggs, grilled on a large stone that Lokhi had heated by magic. Adding a handful of cheese he had been given from a few of the farmers nearby in exchange for using his healing arts on ailing livestock, Lokhi flipped the eggs to cook them evenly.

His keen hearing picked up on Alanis's footsteps before she had entered the room, and he noticed her pause when she saw the paintings. Lokhi knew that the questions would come eventually, and he was unsure of whether he wanted to answer them or not. The only man in the Realms that knew his secret was over a thousand miles away. Despite his knowledge of Lokhi's past, Lokhi looked forward to his appointment with the Sage of Shadowdale later on that day.

Scraping the eggs onto two plates, Lokhi turned and handed one of them to Alanis. She smiled and took it, her face showing signs of curiosity and confusion. Lokhi gestured for the two of them to take a seat at a small table he had conjured several feet away from the large stone, now cool to the touch.

"Enjoy, the eggs and cheese come from my friends east of here who run a small farm." Lokhi smiled, hoping that Alanis would wait before the questions began. He was disappointed, however, when they began nearly immediately.

Alanis took the fork that appeared on the plate and ate breakfast slowly, obviously dealing with several questions on her mind.

"In the paintings…your eyes are green. When I see you now, though, they are blue. Was it magic that caused this? And who are the people in the painting? Are they your family? And the blue-haired elf, who is she?"

Lokhi took a sip of his hot tea and rested against the back of his chair. His face showed that he was going to be very careful how he answered the questions, though he did not intend to lie to Alanis. Trust was something earned, he knew, and he had done his best to earn everyone's trust in the past three years.

"The questions you ask are difficult to answer, but I will do my best. My eyes were green and now they are blue. This was a change that Mystra made when she met me. Evidently blue eyes struck her fancy that day and she has not seen the need to change them back," Lokhi smiled. "And I like them the way they are now."

His expression took a more serious tone as he decided how to best approach her other questions.

"As for the other people in those paintings, the large group you see was my family for a time. Nearly eleven years, if I remember correctly. The woman in the other painting is an apprentice of mine, Sa'shalinae." Lokhi looked down at his eggs and pushed them around with his fork. "She commanded the Art naturally and was powerful on her own. I suggested that a careful study of magic could help her natural talents blossom to their full potential. In that, at least, I was correct. She married a man of questionable integrity and they journeyed far to the North; I never saw her again."

Alanis noticed the melancholy in his voice and considered putting a hand on his to comfort him, but thought against it.

"At any rate, I haven't taken many apprentices that have lived up to their potential. As far as the Art was concerned, Sa'sha was excellent. We made a good team…" Lokhi decided to change the subject before revealing too much about himself, things he would rather keep suppressed and buried under several feet of resentment and bitterness.

"As for this journey of yours to Amn, I am prepared to cast the teleport spell as soon as you are done with your breakfast. I have even taken the liberty of enchanting a ring that will allow you to teleport back to me in case you are in danger or are successful with your reconnaissance." Lokhi placed a silver ring on the table and slid it toward Alanis with one finger. "Simply turn it once to the left and it will teleport you to wherever I am at the time."

Alanis put the ring on the fourth finger on her right hand and held it out to look at it. Satisfied, she caught Lokhi's eye and smiled.

"Do you have anything else, or will you shower me with jewelry all morning?"

Lokhi ignored her efforts to fluster him, and pulled a few pieces of equipment from his jacket pocket. He placed a dark cowl, a curved knife, and a small wand on the table, and wasted no time in explaining their uses.

"Wear the cowl and you'll be invisible to nearly every sort of prying eyes. There's not much short of a god that can see through this invisibility spell. The knife will not rust and is blessed by clerics of Tyr, Ilmater, and Torm. The wand has a spell stored in it that will allow you to use a spellguise as often as you like, and it is much more convincing than those of a common hedge wizard. This includes a brief mind-reading spell if you attempt to disguise yourself as a sentient creature."

Lokhi stood and prepared to cast the spell.

"If that's all you'll be needing, I'd prefer if you got an early start on this, the sun has already been up for quite some time in Amn."

Alanis nodded slowly and rose to her feet, slipping the knife in her belt and the wand and cowl into her pouch. She barely had time to prepare herself before Lokhi began casting the spell to teleport her to Amn.

With a flourish of his fingers, the spell was nearing completion and Alanis felt herself pulled very quickly by gentle hands southward. Lokhi's cavern disappeared and she found herself in an ally with a view of a very busy marketplace. She walked out into the street and took in the scenery of Athkatla, the capital of the province of Amn.

She saw houses made of dried mud and booths of merchants peddling whatever wares the people would buy. Making her way along the unfamiliar streets, Alanis saw large crowds of traders selling medallions of Bane out in the open.

Weaving in and out of the crowd, Alanis was able to pickpocket a few of the more wealthy-looking customers. Slipping into a dark alley, she examined the coin purses she held and saw that the gold coins were very soft Maztican gold, the purest gold she knew of. Between the sight of the gold and the salty smell of the ocean nearby, Alanis realized that Athkatla's main value was as a port city.

Being the thief she was, she quickly counted the gold she had stolen, a nice sum of 53 gold pieces, and put the coins into her own coin purse. Walking back out into the street again, Alanis recalled her objective in Amn: to spy on the warlord, wherever he was. She smiled to herself and wondered how much gold she could steal in the mean time and just which direction the military buildings were in.

Just then, Alanis spied a squad of soldiers marching to the north along the street. The crowd was parting to make way for them, and Alanis decided to follow them. No doubt it was the guards coming off the nightshift, having just been relieved by fresh guards. Alanis decided to hold off on the use of magic just now and just casually followed the line of guards marching two abreast.

No one in the city paid any attention to the leather-clad fiery haired woman that walked after the soldiers. Apparently that had become a common sight in this time of political instability, not to mention in a town in which the motive behind even the smallest action is money.

Alanis continued following the guards, hoping that eventually they'd lead her to the military headquarters where she could find what was behind all this danger Lokhi had told her about.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, Lokhi walked through the rural community of Shadowdale with a smile on his face. It was uncommon for him to be around people so cheerful with seemingly no reason to be so. With Zhentil Keep only a week's march to their northeast and the drow making occasional raids of the Dalelands, the people Shadowdale had every reason to be worrisome. Lokhi enjoyed visiting Shadowdale, however, because the people he saw were always friendly; he was greeted by no less than fifteen people, mostly farmers, on his way to the hill at the northernmost part of town, the Old Skull.

In the old windmill at the top of the hill lived the only man who knew the truth about Lokhi, the whole truth, that is. As Lokhi made his way up the winding stone path to the windmill and through the wooden rail fence, he recalled the winding path that led him to this point in his life. All of its unexpected twists and turns were now only memories that Lokhi did not look back on fondly.

Lokhi walked up to the door of the windmill and reached out to knock it. Before he could rap his knuckles against the door, though, it opened and there stood an elf in comfortable looking clothes. Lokhi smiled.

"Lhaeo, good to see you again."

Lhaeo greeted him politely but with the absence of amusement and distant expression Lokhi had come to expect from most elves. Several centuries of life helps to put things in perspective, Lokhi thought, and his had only just begun.

"Greetings, Lokhi. The Old Mage is out for one of his walks. You'll find him east in the forest."

Lokhi nodded to the scribe and walked back down the stone path, taking a left and walking toward the forest. He smiled as he saw a group of children playing, pretending to be the heroes from the tales they had heard from one bard or another. Lokhi continued walking into the forest.

After several minutes of hiking along the Old Mage's trail, Lokhi saw him sitting on a bench-shaped rock overlooking a stream. He was leaning against the back of the rock and puffing his pipe. Lokhi was amazed at the man, over a thousand years old. His face was beginning to show the signs of age, but his eyes retained their youthful vigor.

As Lokhi approached, his head turned to make eye contact. The Sage of Shadowdale took his pipe out and held it in his right hand. He eyed Lokhi for a moment then continued staring back out at the forest before him.

"Ye seem happy enough, but I can tell ye must be troubled somehow." Elminster took a puff of his pipe while waiting for Lokhi's answer.

"This trouble in Amn, it has me worried. I am concerned because of the Amnian people's hatred of magic. If they spread, they'll bring that hatred with them to whatever lands they conquer. Their closeness to Candlekeep does not help in calming my nerves at all."

Elminster nodded. Slow to speak, he had learned over the past millennium that it was better to take the time, sitting in silence, to formulate an intelligent answer than to blurt out whatever it was that initially came into your mind, simply to fill in the gaps of a conversation.

"Candlekeep is most definitely a treasure that should not be lost. I find it likely that the Amnite people would have vied for its destruction. However, these people have now joined forces with the ogre mages in southern Amn. A curious situation, indeed."

Taking another puff of his pipe, Elminster decided to tell Lokhi another piece of information that could help him solve this mystery.

"Of course, this presents an intriguing question. Why would a people so widely known for their reviling of magic suddenly band together with ogre mages and their armies?"

Lokhi nodded.

"Indeed, if we can find the answer to that, we'll be a step closer to solving this and putting an end to the trouble in Amn."

Elminster smiled. How long ago had it been him in the same position, the idealistic young Chosen dedicated to holding Faerûn together? Several hundred years at least…had it really been so long?

"Lad, my sources in Aglarond tell me that the Red Wizards might have something to do with this. It's my understanding that they intend to keep Amn's hatred of magic prevalent in the people. If Amn spreads into the North, they will kill any mages they find. In this sense, they will do the work of the Red Wizards better than most Thayans could hope to do themselves."

Lokhi understood instantly. The Red Wizards sought to keep magic for themselves. Any other mages not in their group were a direct threat to them, and therefore a target. If Amn's armies marched against the North and they could successfully clean out most of the North's mages, the Red Wizards' goals would be accomplished and it would allow for Thay to expand to the West and conquer the remnants of the North's cities.

"Do your sources tell who in the Red Wizards is supporting this?"

Elminster nodded. He always enjoyed seeing the wheels turn inside the mind of a young mage, especially one in which so much power had been vested. True, Lokhi wasn't as powerful as El, but that didn't mean that he was weak in the Art by any means. Elminster knew that while Lokhi was young, he would develop his magic to incredible heights, perhaps even surpassing Elminster himself a few centuries down the road.

"Indeed they do, lad. Or she does, I should say." Elminster looked over to Lokhi with a gleam in his eye, both knowing the woman Elminster was speaking of, his lover, the Simbul. Lokhi returned El's smile with a half smile of his own.

"She tells me that it is the lich Ssas Tam of Thay. Last I heard he was their zulkir of Necromancy," El said.

A zulkir, Lokhi knew, was a sort of headmaster of a school; only in this case it would be the leader of the sect of Red Wizards whose choice it was to follow a particular school of magic such as abjuration or illusion.

Lokhi nodded, understanding the power he would be going up against. He was only in his thirties compared to a lich that had survived two centuries of undeath and plots against him from every side.

Elminster took another puff of his pipe while he awaited Lokhi's next question. He knew that the young mage was smart enough to figure it out on his own, but he did enjoy watching the thought process take place.

"Is there anything else I should know about this?" Lokhi asked, trying to piece the information he had together.

"Aye. Volumes, lad, but that is information I don't have either. I'd suggest ye pay a visit to Amn yourself. Despite what ye may think, a Chosen should have no trouble slipping in and out of spellguises and blending in with the common folk."

Lokhi rose to his feet and turned toward Elminster.

"I sent a spy to Amn to get as close to this warlord as she could. I haven't even discovered the man's name yet."

"Neither have I, lad. His armor makes it impossible for us to spy on him with magic. I'm certain that his suit contains a sort of antimagic field, but that the suit's magic itself is not affected. It is a mystery to me as well, Lokhi."

Lokhi nodded and thanked the Old Mage for the chat, making plans for another chat in the following weeks. With his appointment for the day done, Lokhi decided that with noon approaching, it was high time that he paid a visit to the province of Amn.

Two hours later, a small falcon soared through the skies above Amn's major city, Athkatla. Flying lower to gain speed, the bird raced between the buildings of the port city, drawing closer to the military barracks with each second. The falcon arrived at the barracks and perched on the railing of a balcony. After a quick scan of the crowd to be sure no one was watching him, the falcon hopped off the railing toward the stone floor of the balcony.

Leather boots, not talons, landed on the stone as Lokhi transformed himself back into his usual form. He slipped inside the balcony's door and was inside the soldiers' barracks. Since it was the heat of the day, no one was curled up in bed, and Lokhi had the opportunity to don a spellguise, creating the illusion that he was one of the soldiers themselves.

With his spellguise securely in place, Lokhi marched out of the room and into the hall, the stone floor echoing loudly against his guard's boots. Anyone in the barracks would know that a particularly loud soldier of Amn was making his way through the building, and that's exactly what Lokhi wanted.

It was unlikely that the leader of this army would sleep in the same building as his troops. Such things were simply not done in most cases. Lokhi made his way down the hall and down the old stone stairs of the building, making sure to shut the door loudly behind him as he made his exit.

He took in the scenery of Amn, realizing the greed of the people here compared to those in Shadowdale. The people of Shadowdale were content to be farmers and tradesmen, content with their work-filled lives. The Amnites were anything but happy, as Lokhi could see. Everywhere he looked he saw merchants selling overpriced items of questionable quality. Any street corner was transformed into a marketplace at the chance to make a few gold pieces.

Not only did these people hate magic, they also made their money at the expense of others. Lokhi was a bit angered by this, to say the least, and made a mental note to deliver some poetic justice to these people when this was settled.

Using his brain instead of brute force, Lokhi decided that the best way to end this swiftly would be to ask for directions. He turned to one of the nearest merchants, a particularly slimy one, with greasy black hair and a shop called Tymora's Grin, obviously dealing in luck charms for any price. Those charms promising the best luck were the most expensive.

"Where do I find the leader of our army?"

The merchant looked at Lokhi confused.

"What are you asking me for, shouldn't you know? After all, he is your commanding officer, isn't he?"

Lokhi needed a way out of this fast, and luckily the stereotypical arrogant soldier attitude came through for him again.

"Just answer the question!" Lokhi barked uncharacteristically.

The merchant was taken aback, but pointed him in the direction of the general's tower for a price. Lokhi paid the man with a cut ruby the size of the end of his thumb. The merchant seemed particularly pleased to have the gem, naturally. He would not have been so eager to put it under his pillow that night had he known that it was set to transform back into a serpent twelve hours after leaving Lokhi's possession.

Another satisfied customer, Lokhi thought as he walked through the busy streets toward the general's tower. The closer he got, the more he saw guards that wore the same half-plate armor as him. These, he knew, were the soldiers whose job it was to guard the warlord from any outside invaders.

Lokhi approached the front door of the tower and looked dead in the eyes of the guards stationed at the building's entrance. The building was very large and ominous, seeming to lean forward imposingly over those standing in front of it. Lokhi was hardly impressed, recalling the castle that he used to call home. Beautifully ornate in the daytime, but come nightfall the castle was alive with the vengeful shades of those whom the family had killed over the years.

Lokhi reburied those memories of his former life for the hundredth time. He hoped that the arrogance and complacency he had observed among the royalty with whom he had lived would serve as an example of how those in positions of power should not act.

Despite these reveries, which Lokhi frequently went on, he tried to focus on the mission at hand. These guards would have two choices: let him pass or face the wrath of an angry mage.

"I'm here to see the general. Official business." Lokhi put his hands on his hips to present himself as a bit irritated that the guards had even dared stand in his way in the first place.

"Funny, we were told that the general was to be left alone all day. One of his long naps, we assume." The guard folded his arms resolutely, obviously not falling for Lokhi's lie.

Lokhi decided then and there that this was a time for magic. Calling up one of his silent spells from memory, Lokhi cast a Charm spell. Despite how it sounded, the Mass Charm spell wasn't a love charm; it was designed to improve a person's reputation in the eyes of the spell's target. In this case, the target of the spell was the crowd standing around the front of the warlord's building.

With a pat on the back and friendly small talk, the guards were soon leading him up the stairs toward the general. Finally, Lokhi thought, I can have a moment alone with this ruler, perhaps talk him out of his plan, perhaps remove the threat altogether.

As Lokhi was led through a hallway, much like the one in the soldiers' barracks, he nearly fainted as the rafters from the ceiling came crashing down around the three of them. The two guards quickly rose to their feet and drew their swords. A pang of fear went through Lokhi as he wondered why a building's structural problem would be cause to draw steel.

As Lokhi turned, he saw Alanis just in time to glimpse her shoving the knife he gave her into his stomach. She quickly drew back and began stabbing with all of her force into his chest. Obviously she couldn't see through his spellguise.

Just as she realized the knife had no blood on it and took a step back, one guard pulled Lokhi out of the way while the other moved in to cut her down with his sword. She dodged his first swing, and then parried his second swing with her blade.

Lokhi knew that there was little hope of keeping the masquerade he was under now. As soon as the guard who was pulling Lokhi away from the perceived danger checked him for stab wounds and found none, as he had a spell he commonly used that made him immune to attacks from blades, there would be little doubt in the guard's mind that magic was somehow involved.

He broke free of the guard and dropped his spellguise, quickly casting a sleep spell before the guard could recover from the shock. The soldier slumped against the wall and slid down, sitting in a heap on the floor.

Turning, Lokhi saw that the other guard and Alanis were locked in combat. He walked up behind the guard and placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling the sleep spell take effect on this guard as well. Lokhi caught the guard before he fell and carried him toward the wall where the other guard now sat and slept peacefully.

Alanis eyed Lokhi, her pulse still racing after the fight, and sheathed her dagger. She took a step toward him and she was about to mutter something about being able to handle the situation herself. But just as she began to speak, the door to the warlord's room creaked open.

Steadying themselves, Lokhi summoned his courage and walked into the doorway, looking into the dark room as though one of the Dukes of Hell waited for him inside, and for all Lokhi knew, one did.


End file.
